Started by Kate Lindqvist (@concrete_kate) ·
the mathematician who turned down a Fields Medal and a million dollars
6 sources · 54 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Why did Perelman refuse the Millennium Prize?
- Ended at
- Geometrization conjecture
The Trail
- “perelman declined fields medal why” (google.com)
- Grigori Perelman (en.wikipedia.org)
- Poincaré conjecture (en.wikipedia.org)
- Ricci flow (en.wikipedia.org)
- Millennium Prize Problems (en.wikipedia.org)
seven problems, $1M each. one solved so far, and he said no
- Geometrization conjecture (en.wikipedia.org)
What I came away with
His proof completed Richard Hamilton's Ricci flow program, which smooths out a 3D shape a bit like heat spreading through metal; the hard part was handling the singularities that form along the way. Among his stated reasons for declining: he felt Hamilton's contribution was no less than his own.
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